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JHU Comics has been a staple of the NYC comic book scene for over 30+ years. But like many small businesses, increasing rent prices and rapid gentrification have pushed them out of their current location. Fortunately, they have been able to find a new home on short notice, but it needs around $30,000 in repairs & moving expenses to get up and running. Owners Ron Hill & Nick Purpura have turned to GoFundMe to help mitigate these costs and have been greeted with open arms by the comic book community past and present in their support. On this episode, we get into what it is like to run a comic book store in 2018, the challenges that come with it, how comic book movies effect comic book sales, the rapidly changing landscape of mom and pop stores in NYC, the outpouring of recent support from established writers and artists, and more!

Steve Whalen is a comedian who has some great insight into the current NYC comedy scene and has been featured on shows like Difficult People, Crashing, High Maintenance, and can be seen every week on The Special Without Brett Davis. This episode we discuss breaking into the Screen Actors Guild, getting punched on the set of Law & Order, influential comedies that deserve more awareness, Tiger electronics, working on different movie sets, and more!

Mady G is a comic artist and illustrator. They also co-host a podcast with me on Youtube called 'Cartoon Buffoons' all about animation. This episode, I'm choosing to highlight and promote one of our recent conversations about the 90s Cartoon Network showcase classics "CN Groovies" and "What-A-Cartoon"!

Comedian Mary Houlihan joins me this episode for a wide-ranging discussion including talking about her interview with Martin Shkreli, Mr. Rogers, the original 151 Pokemon, re-evaluating old problematic media, the Hungry Monk Rescue Truck, high school teachers that moonlight as wrestlers, the pure joy of King of the Hill, old cookbook food, and more!

Todd Glass is a comedian who has a Netflix Special premiering January 23rd and hosts The Todd Glass Show on the Nerdist network. This episode, Todd and I pick up right where we left off the last time he was on and get into a substantive conversation about various social issues related to comedy, putting things in proper context, discussing which hills people decide to die on over, understanding the type of audience you cultivate, people who prop up strawman arguments, the joy in being able to admit when you are wrong about something, and much more!

Joe Rumrill is a comedian who has his hand in many different cookie jars around the NYC comedy scene. Listen as we kick off 2018 with a loose, fun conversation about golden age animation, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Sunday comic strips, comedy, Sesame Street & The Muppets, what the kids today are into, the uncanniness of the Spongebob musical, and much more!

It's the 2017 Holiday Special! This year the theme is a very cheap and British Christmas as past guests Stuart Ashen (Youtuber, Author) and Paul & Eli from CheapShow Podcast come together for a roundtable conversation about the holidays, fast food, Christmas Number Ones, Holiday Crackers, Black Friday, and generally all-things festive!

Big thanks to Steve Horsley (@Horsenburger on Twitter) for the teletext episode artwork!

&

Matt Wilson (mattwilsonmusic.bandcamp.com) for this year's holiday cover of the theme from 'Santa Claus Conquers The Martians'!

Brian Bonz is a singer/songwriter who has toured around the world as a solo artist as well as a part of Kevin Devine's backing band. He also, along with Filmmaker Mike Rizzo, are launching a new web series based off their cult comedy music project 'Bobo Touch.' Brian is also currently starring the the short sci-fi film 'Pumpkin,' which is currently seeking distribution. This episode we discuss the idea of bands touring vs saturating a single city, the generational shift between what constitutes success as an artist, balancing passion with business, and more!

Daniel Kibblesmith is a writer for 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' and the author of a new Christmas picturebook called 'Santa's Husband' (with illustrations by AP Quach). This episode we discuss how a tweet led to the book's creation, the positive response and reacting to the backlash by some, sexual assault relating to the comedy community, the stigma some people still have regarding depression, The Late Show's 'Russia Week', and more!

Marc Summers is known as the host of the Nickelodeon's 'Double Dare,' 'What Would You Do?,' as well as 'Unwrapped' on the Food Network, which he has become a big personality on in the second act of his career. He has been promoting a documentary on his life called 'On Your Marc,' which is currently in the process of solidifying a distributor. This episode we discuss Marc's early years as a stand-up and warm-up comic, working at The Comedy Store, Double Dare 2000, the transition from Nickelodeon to Food Network, being proactive with your career, and much more! We also cap off the conversation with some listener questions!

This week is a very special episode, as I look back on the first two years of the show and highlight clips from 10 comedians/writers. Newer listeners will be in for a real treat and longtime ones will enjoy revisiting some great moments from comedians Paul Scheer, Bill Oakley, Negin Farsad, Josh Gondelman, Todd Glass, Kelly Carlin, Brian Stack, Jimmy Pardo, Roy Wood Jr, and Jo Firestone!

Larry Olmsted is the author of the book 'Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating & What You Can Do About It.' He is also a columnist for Forbes & USAToday. In this episode, we discuss how the FDA is hurting Americans by keeping in place low standards (such as only inspecting 2% of all seafood imports), what different companies are doing to get you to buy products that aren't what they seem, how some of these foods are better outside of America due to other countries having better regulating bodies, why Wal-Mart actually has better standards for food than most regular stores, and much more.

Jo Firestone is a comedian, writer/performer for 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,' Creator of the live-show and hit card game 'Punderdome 3000,' has a new podcast called 'Dr. Gameshow' coming to the Earwolf network later this October, and this past Friday had a half hour stand-up episode premiere on Comedy Central. This episode we discuss her unique comedic style, using games and themes as a means to facilitate comedy, her recurring portrayal on the Tonight Show of Betsy Devos, why people shouldn't be dismissive of different types of comedy, birds, and much more!

Dan Colonna, Dave Grima, and Mark Magro host the 'Dinosaur Machines Gameclub' podcast where they do book-club style reviews of indie video games. This episode, Dan & Dave stop by to discuss the state of game consoles in 2017, what indie games can do now that they couldn't several years ago, why the state of co-op games feels stagnant, good applications for VR, and more!

Chris Cogswell holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and hosts the popular Mad Scientist Podcast. This episode we discuss the accessibility of scientific research, misconceptions and falsehoods in the way we report on science, debunking the modern conspiracies, and more!

Lizzy Goodman is an author whose latest book 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' is the first major book to document the NYC music scene and culture from 2001-2011. This episode we discuss the romanticizing of that time, how the book is just as much about the culture of NYC as it is about the music, putting things like the internet and gentrification in context, how the music and comedy scenes were dovetailing into the same patterns during that time, and more!

Justin McElroy is best known for him & his brother's podcast 'My Brother, My Brother, and Me" as well as their SeeSo comedy series, being the Editor-at-Large for the gaming site Polygon, and for additional podcasts such as The Adventure Zone and Sawbones. This episode we discuss the inherently good nature of the brothers, how to keep working through creative self-doubt, video games as deconstructed building blocks, why 'podcast' is an awful name, recently being on @Midnight, FMV games, things I bought at Sheetz, and more!

Paul Gannon & Eli Silverman host the popular 'Cheap Show Podcast' out of the UK as well as perform on the Barshens Youtube channel alongside popular Youtubers Barry Lewis & (past guest) Stuart Ashen. This episode we discuss Ghostbusters and the shelf-life of novelty and nostalgia, the value of being cheap and frugal, why their listeners can't stop asking questions about noodles, why we are living in a golden age of snacks, and more!

Stephen Ignatious is the host of the 'In Strange Company' podcast and also does work with WFMU. This episode, we discuss our shared love of weird radio, the legend of Hearty White, Dungeons & Dragons, what makes something cringeworthy, and more!

John Szeluga is a comedian and writer for 'Impractical Jokers' and the host of the Super Live Adventure Podcast with his co-host Chris Sorrentino. In this extra-long TWO HOUR return episode of the podcast we hit the ground running by discussing John being a new father, raising a modern child in 2017, the evolution of sitcoms, preparing for doomsday, family & facebook, how anesthesia feels like death, and much more!

Roy Wood Jr is a comedian who can be seen most weeknights as a correspondent for 'The Daily Show with Trevor Noah' and who also has a new standup special called 'Father Figure' out now on Comedy Central. This episode we discuss Roy's early days working in radio and honing his comedic voice, the context of being able to speak freely in public and private spaces, the casual absurdity of situations he finds himself in as a Daily Show correspondent, how to do political comedy in this type of climate, and more.

Jason Zinoman is the NY Times Comedy Critic and author of the new book 'Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night.' This episode we discuss the legacy of David Letterman and his show on the last 30 years of comedy and the long shadow he has cast, the state of current late night television, explaining the influence of something that isn't constantly in cultural syndication, tracking down every episode of Late Night/Late Show, the tonal shifts in late night over the years, and more.

Neil Cicierega is a content creator who has been making weird, wonderful things online since he was a teenager. If you don't know him from his music as Lemon Demon then you might know him from his Potter Puppet Pals youtube series or his series of mash-up albums or his youtube videos or from any number of one-off creative endeavors. In this episode we discuss defining exactly what Neil does, the idea of nostalgia as a commodity in pop culture, the evolution of Youtube, deconstructing They Might Be Giants, and more!

Ted Leo is a musician who has performed for the past 15+ years in various capacities with his band, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, as well as having recently collaborated with Aimee Mann on an album as 'The Both.' He was also in the band Chisel during the mid-90s and has been playing for crowds since the late 80s. Recently, he Kickstarted his new album, and with 48 hours left as of March 22nd, has received over $150,000 from his fans. This episode we discuss his career arc, the perception of age as it relates to music, the overlap between music and comedy, musical cruises, and more! ALSO, Ted was gracious enough to play a couple of songs for the show! One of his classics and one new one off his forthcoming album!

Erin Mallory Long is a writer, producer, performer, and podcaster. She's a person who wears many hats and on today's episode we discuss what it means to do a lot of creative projects at once, the economic reality of that, how comparable college life is to the show 'Felicity,' working with live animals at the Oscars, what makes a good sitcom, and much more!